AFL 2026

I went for closer to a deep depression last night than should have been possible.
The Lions assumed by winning the first half by 8 goals they they just needed to turn up to win by 15 goals.
Unfortunately thr Blues woke up and honestly looked like a top 6 side. Smashed us in the middle and McKay woke the fuck up.
Waaaay to nervy last 10 and the type of performance that should get a bake even from papa Fages.

If Carlton found something in that 2nd half thrn they will give everyone they play kittens. Well done to them, shows that Voss hasn't lost the dressing room. Should have folded, did the opposite.

Lions need to be careful, I have seen teams who think they just need to get to finals before flicking the switch come undone over and over.

@mariner4life

thought the final series panned out nicely last year for the lions
1st - the dockers choked it up late in the regular season which let them into the top four
2nd - then they lost in the 1st round of the play-offs
3rd - then they demolished the suns at home (after the dockers choked it up again) and were able to get on a roll
4th - they really only brought it for the two games at the mcg
nicely done

I know North are a different beast to what we've seen over the last few seasons but damn that was MUCH closer than i thought it would be, hopefully the boys take that as a wake up call

Lol Carlton are such a meme

Coming off their best half of the season, one in which they put the shits right up the back-to-back premiers, and a few of their players finally came to life, and their coach resigns on Tuesday morning. He clearly hasn't lost the group, so what the fuck?

Rinse and repeat, maybe it will work this time?

Def not an AFL fan , but found this article interesting re promising young AFL players being recruited for the NFL as punters (free access) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-16/american-football-afl-players-hopefuls-punters-college-kickers/106665500.

Based on the info in this piece the $$ and a free degree are powerful incentives for many.

the shit Scott brother is rightfully fired.

can you imagine being an Essendon fan? Deadset if they reappoint James Hird then all hope is lost.

The league would be better off if they rolled all of Carlton, Essendon, North and St Kilda in to one team. The Greater Melbourne Losers.

I was driving earlier and listing to talkback sport SEN ,

The amount of people ringing up saying stuff like we need to get James back because hes an Essendon legend and he knows the Essendon way, whatever that is ( yeah putting aside the drug scandal he was a great player and one of if not their best )

But how many times does a favorite son player work out as a coach anyway ? its fairy tale stuff that for whatever reason seems to have a low success rate ,

T
And their best ever Coach Kevin Sheedy was a one club premiership player at Richmond , a rival club they hate .

@mariner4life

yep
merge them
or even better, relegate them back to where they came from, the VFL

I note that North are taking two home games to Perth
they'll get 40k plus at both games
where as in Melbourne they’d struggle to get 20k.
both games are back-to-back, I think, the great North Melbourne WA money grab!

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@mariner4life

yep
merge them
or even better, relegate them back to where they came from, the VFL

I note that North are taking two home games to Perth
they'll get 40k plus at both games
where as in Melbourne they’d struggle to get 20k.
both games are back-to-back, I think, the great North Melbourne WA money grab!

North wont get 40k plus for both games because they're playing Freo in Bunbury next week.

Speaking of Freo......time to hand them the flag yet?

Carlton actually look better since they canned Voss - funny how that works

@African-Monkey
so . . . you are off to Bunbury then!!
although maybe not, it's a Dockers away game.

The WA govt is not shy about splashing the cash.
Must be paying North $1m+

nothing like that would happen in NZ
Whangarei has to pay the Blues to get a SR rugby game!
quite a contrast

edit

Often wondered why Melbourne teams take Dockers home games country, when they would be financially way better off actually taking the games to Fremantle's home ground.

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@African-Monkey
so . . . you are off to Bunbury then!!
although maybe not, it's a Dockers away game.

The WA govt is not shy about splashing the cash.
Must be paying North $1m+

nothing like that would happen in NZ
Whangarei has to pay the Blues to get a SR rugby game!
quite a contrast

edit

Often wondered why Melbourne teams take Dockers home games country, when they would be financially way better off actually taking the games to Fremantle's home ground.

Nah wont be going, work haha but a couple of North fans I work with are. Yeah don't North get 2 mil from the WA govt for the games they bring here?

@African-Monkey

It'd be something like that.
The state govt may not be paying for the North v Eagles game.

The AFL may have competition integrity concerns if North took both home games actually to Perth.
Let North off with one game, but not two.
Dunno what the "official" view is on that.
But the fixture list was clearly worked around it.

the Bloods show some fucking grit!

stats popped up at the end, somethign like Swans time in front 20min.....Saints 120min...heartbreaking for them im sure an epic comeback!

Queue the fans of the club that has become the whingiest in the comp crying about conspiracies and being robbed. Shut up Saints fans, you are irrelevant.
Waaaah, it's everyone elses fault we have sucked forever

The bye rounds are pretty boring.

Freo look good. That was a quality game on Thursday and a good Freo win. They have talent in spades. Only question mark for me is the way Geelong were able to move the ball and score with relative ease at times. Come finals they will need to tighten that up to win big finals. But they have so much speed, and genuinely fun players to watch.
Adelaide keep racking up good wins at the moment and have found their mojo.

It drives home how many deeply ordinary teams there are at the moment when North somehow sit 7-7.

Carlton fans are probably very angry Voss was given the last year and a half.

Freo, Sydney, Hawthorn and Adelaide look the most likely to contest the GF at the moment, Lions too if they can get a few troops back, and not lose any more.

from memory the bloods havent come out of the bye well so this week coming will be a test of how weve changed things from other years

Adelaide did their best to keep Melbourne in it on Saturday.

Last 10mins was a procession of single points keeping it within 2 goals right till the siren.

Caught the 4th quarter kind of by accident.

Enjoyed the tension because the result.

@mariner4life said in AFL 2026:

Freo look good. That was a quality game on Thursday and a good Freo win.

This is the best Freo team ever.
not sayin they are guna win it all tho

@mohikamo said in AFL 2026:

@mariner4life said in AFL 2026:

Freo look good. That was a quality game on Thursday and a good Freo win.

This is the best Freo team ever.
not sayin they are guna win it all tho

Oh stop it mate, it's Flagmantle's year!

said in AFL 2026:

from memory the bloods havent come out of the bye well so this week coming will be a test of how weve changed things from other years

i fucking called it

Curnow has not fixed Sydney's problem of rockstar midfielders and absolute spud forwards. Amarty is a joke.

@mariner4life they both have these games where theyre unbeatable and kick +6...we just need them to not both do it in the same game....beat one team by +80 one week and then lose the next

what the hell was that?
Sydney beat the Dogs without leaving 3rd gear. Another nothing season for the Dogs
Melbourne at one point led the Hawks by 13 goals and hung on to win by 6
GWS beat Freo? look out Freo fans, the last few seasons are littered with teams flying until July, having one weird loss and then going nowhere.
The Suns are in freefall. At least someone sorted Maynard out.
Tom Lynch might be high on Carlton's BnF
Essendon are just so fucking bad
The last game almost had more free kicks than either team scored points. Genuine dogshit.

The Lions have got themselves back in the top 4, have beaten Sydney and Geelong in the last two rounds, and are starting to get a lot of troops back. We ain't dead yet

And we are making a run for the wildcard/play-in spot.

We are a game out of 10th and have a much stronger % than the two teams ahead of us. Our draw in the run home is really favourable too.

10th bound. It’s our year.

nice to be able to take the entire 2nd half off and still win for St Kilda

Hey all. Silly question.

What is the play-off format? Just saw the ladder split to Top 6 and WCs (assume that is wild cards), and am too lazy to look up if you guys can do it for me...

@booboo

@Kiwiwomble said in AFL 2026:

@booboo View image

Thanks heaps. Pretty straightforward and not at all complicated.

@booboo i know right....they manage to make it engaging though

AFL house doing their part to try and get Essendon a finals win. Except they'll have to extend the wildcard a LOT further to do that.

At half time on Thursday Freo were looking sketchy, by fulltime they are short favs for the flag.
Geelong finally cooked?
Carlton a reality check
The fuck has gone so wrong at the Gold Coast? They look mentally beaten
Essendon are really really bad. And yet Richmond have a worse percentage.

how in gods name do you kick 27 goals in a quarter against the back to back premiers, beat Freo and geelong in consecutive weeks, and then lose to this Essington side? The Giants are all over the place.
Something is very very wrong at the Gold Coast and maybe the Suns are a waste of time.
Half the comp range from ordinary to deplorable at the moment, and the play-in is looking a stupid idea with the bog-average Saints at 8-10 looking like playing a post-season game.

@mariner4life said in AFL 2026:

Something is very very wrong at the Gold Coast and maybe the Suns are a waste of time.

When has a sporting team not succumbed to the GC curse?